Arsenal Need A Goal Machine

We have a beautiful football club. The set up, the organisation and the ethos. All wonderful.

We also have a very good team, nice lads generally speaking, willing and committed.

We started the season in very difficult circumstances. Crowd booing plus a highly important 180 minutes which was worth £30 million +.

However, this team had already shown significant progress since last Feb-Mar. The word in the summer was about strengthening with top-top quality. The positions were identified as striker and defensive midfielder. That’s exactly what Arsene went for – Luis, Higuain, Cabaye, Flamini. He also knows what is needed, strangely enough ….

When our midfield flows we are devastating. Without a 30-goal hitman it’s natural to seek your goals from midfielders. But when they press us and the midfield don’t have the ‘flow’, that is where you either need a Suarez to clinically kill the opposition, or mean wingers with pace and dribbling ability who can go directly and diagonally inside the opponent’s box. In the past we had Overmars, Ljunberg, Reyes and Pires to do just that.

We had a tough period with many key players out including Theo, Poldi, and Ox, (even Ryo was unavailable), so we played with three and four CAMs all interchanging behind the target-man, but usually without width and mostly playing through the middle or beating high-line offside traps (Napoli, Marseile) usually from Sagna’s side of the pitch.

And it’s worth saying that Sagna has been a monster of a right-back this season.

Besides losing so many key players for half a season, we also had dear Santi recovering from ankle injury and it took him a while to re-settle into the side with the pace and the physicality of the English game.

So we went on with heroic Ramsey and Giroud plus flashes of brilliance from Ozil and, throughout, ‘imPERious’ defensive stability. And the system worked.

Lately though, and taking into account fatigue, the system couldn’t produce goals. Our midfield was pressured and kicked to death and we’d either not score or score from a player’s solo effort – against Chelsea, City, and our first against West Ham, for example.

There has also been a slight confusion in terms of which games we play Arteta and in which we play Flamini. In games were we need to dominate and kick a few backsides, as well as suffocate opponents, I think the services of Flamini Rosicky and Jack are required. In games were we need a more sophisticated, composed approach we need Arteta. Against Everton for instance, we needed Flamini and Rosicky from the start, but they had played against Napoli. Same goes for the Chelsea home game. Flamini should have been in there to kick Ramires and Obi. Arteta is a very delicate technical artist, not ideal to be a bully or a Gatusso. His talents are more suited for Europe provided he remembers that in Europe you have to be careful with your fouls, unlike the EPL.

I’m of the opinion that Wenger can see his team struggling to score when midfield isn’t firing and that he will go for a clinical finisher now that his wingers are back. I love Giroud to bits and his goal at Newcastle was both important and very difficult to score, but the way he plays (chasing every ball) he will inevitably suffer fatigue and potentially a lack of confidence.

Manager and club need to assist Giroud in this department. Giroud is a great target-man. A lad who can get you 15 goals a season and when in form has good finishing ability, too. And whether the ball is low or high (feet or head) his abilities are unquestionable but he is no Thierry Henry to take the ball, go past two and slide it past the keeper. There will be games when our negated midfield will need such a striker. Wenger might think that since he got 30 goals out of Adebayor anyone can play up top since we create so many scoring opportunities for our striker. But to win the big ones you need something else – va-va-voom.

Philosophically, perhaps, he is aiming for this group to do it as it currently is. But realistically, for that to happen we need things to go our way. If the board view this season as an opportunity to stake a claim of dominance, then they must authorise Wenger to spend what he wants, on whoever he wants.

TGSTEL. Big Bollocks Bendtner.
Take that you haters!
As Moppet, Kelly (AlabamaGooner) and I just discussed on Twitter, how the hell can a genuine supporter join in slating Bendtner. Sure he has been a dick at times. But which of us at his age didn’t do something stupid.
When push came to shove only a stupid man would not have kept him as a back-up. Around in the Academy and Reserves since 16 years. Scored a lot of big goals for Arsenal and Denmark. Quality.

Wilshere had a very dynamic game and was in the thick of most of our threatening attacks while defending in midfield to press and win the ball keeping Cardiff under pressure for 60 sustained mins. Subs were excellent but I think Poldi was starting to play much better in 2nd half. Might be a fitness question and he’ll get another chance v. Spuds in the cup.

Terrific battling with our top scorers and creators this season out: Giroud, Rambo, Ozil. No wonder our finishing was a bit wayward for much of the game. Great start to 2014!

super nic was great today and don’t remember him losing the ball once, gutted he is injured but at least the haters cant have a go at him while on the treatment table…nah course they will Neanderthals.
while I was increasingly worried about time beating us when we scored I wasn’t surprised, a marked difference on previous seasons. This was another game when everything was against us, weather ,injuries to key players and a lot of them, players who are playing still getting over flu or injuries and the team were facing having already done well against the big sides trying to impress a new manger sitting in the stands and popping down to speak to them at half time.
This was a big Wapping banana skin bigger than the blow up ones you see on the coast of the Mediterranean and to have sidestepped it with grit and some style is a big plus, Who the manager picks for the spuds game is a nightmare but there is no one i would rather trust to get it right

Hahaha.. I still have butterflies probably for the rest of the day too. congratulations all around and AW for a well played game and great result.
SHOTTA
you ORACLE YOU. Spot on with the score. Great solid defending and a clean sheet . Come to pappa. Lol. top of the league, I said we are top of the league.
Happy happy new years day….
LIMESTONE
I like CAL. My favorite and the on I follow is UCLA BRUINS.. I got to stay with eventual wins though so it’s the cardinals of Stanford. Pac 10 baby!!! bring it home to pappa.
JACK had a great game . Well done kiddo.

DC, apparently at 60 mins with Welbeck’s dive but Webb didn’t get the memo. He doesn’t recognize Moyes’ handwriting, I suspect. Reminds me earlier in the season he booked Rooney in the first half! He’s a free agent now, maybe we an pick him up on a free!

Just back from the game and so glad for the happy ending! I really feared it was going to be one of those days, but was ecstatic when Nicky B answered my pleas to be a hero and score the winner for us as he entered the fray! I think TR7’s introduction really brought the game to life as we were too slow and ponderous before that, but once more our grit and determination saw us through when our usual fluid game had gone awol. It’s a real shame that NB will now be out of action because he could have gone on a little run starting with spurs on Saturday.

The crowd was equally sleepy today, but our pressure finally brought about the deserved yellow for the time wasting goal keeper – hopefully we learn from that and keep the pressure up more often to get a few decisions our way.

Excellent remarks on the crowd and referee pressure, Passenal. Apparently studies have shown that home advantage consists more in this than in other factors, so Emirates crowd need to keep up pressure on the ref.